João Pedro Marnoto (b.1975, Portugal) enrolled in his first photography class at the age of 14. He later left halfway during a degree in graphic design in Portugal and went to the UK to train as a photographer. As time progressed he turned increasingly to documentary work, with his first book called “The Rocks, The People And The Memory” released in 2007. João teaches photography and recently received a grant from the Portuguese Center of Photography to develop a project and exhibited around Portugal. He is finishing his first video documentary and a new book. His work was shown at the Lumix festival for young photographers in 2008 and he is currently working with the NGO: Doctors of the World.

About the Photograph:

“My working process consists mainly in wandering around and trying to make contact with the environment and it’s people. On a cold, cloudy but relaxing winter afternoon I entered this local cafe at Vila Verde in Alijó, a region situated in Northeast Portugal. The photo is part of a project entitled “Nine Months of Winter and Three of Hell”, a popular expression from the Douro and Trás-os-Montes region in Northeast Portugal. The work is about the people that live beyond the slopes of the Douro River, ingrained in the land that sustains their hunger and the faith that points towards the skies. One of Western Europe’s poorest regions and last frontiers of rural life this region produces the beloved Port Wine. This project also represents a human relation with nature and faith vanishing and confronted by new social, economic and political realities. It is a visual representation of the opposite end of the chain of evolution and progress that brings with it the disappearance of past values.

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João Pina ( b.1980, Portugal) started working as a photographer at the age of 18. In 2002 began working in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba and Paraguay. In 2004-2005 he decided to go back to school and enrolled in the Documentary Photography program at ICP. His work has been published in The New York Times, Newsweek, GEO Magazine, El Pais, Days Japan, Expresso and Visão among others. He has exhibited his work in New York (ICP and Point of View Gallery), London (Ian Parry Award), Tokyo (Canon gallery), Lisbon (Casa Fernando Pessoa). Since 2007 he has been based in Argentina, where he continues to document the remnants of a military operation named Operation Condor aimed at destroying the political opposition to the military dictatorships in South America during the 1970s. He is a member of the Portuguese collective Kameraphoto since 2003.

About the Photograph:

“This project about Portugal’s former political prisoners means much more to me than just photography. It is about my own heritage as a young man. It is about me, even if it happened many years before I was born. It is about a very small group of people that were arrested, tortured and sentenced to many years in jail because they thought differently. Both my grandparents were part of this group. My grandmother Albertina Diogo and my grandfather Guilherme da Costa Carvalho (who died in 1973) were members of the Portuguese communist party and fought with their ideals against a fascist regime that lasted for 48 years in Portugal making it the longest dictatorial regime of western Europe in the 20th century.” (more…)

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About...

Photographer and photo editor Geoffrey Hiller has created Verve Photo to feature photographs and interviews by the finest contemporary image makers today. Verve Photo is a reminder of the power of the still image. Verve Photo will also point you to new photo agencies, publications, and inspiring multimedia projects.